Representing animation artists, writers and technicians since 1952.

The Animated Productions Among Us

As I write, this minute, the Animation Guild has 3.467 people working under its jurisdiction.

This is a long way from the 700 artists, writers and technicians who were employed under a contract in 1989, but hey. Twenty-seven years ago, animation was the ugly, beaten step-child of the movie and television industry. Now it is not only beloved, but a big profit center in Tinsel Town (which explains why it’s now beloved).

TV work has steadily grown over the past three years, and looks to be growing some more in 2016. DreamWorks Animation TV is steaming ahead with new orders from Netflix, and the conglomerates (Disney, Time-Warner, Fox) are developing new content.

There have been a number of new studios that have entered the Los Angeles market. Some, like Original Force 3-D Animation, the Guild has signed contracts with. Others, like Alpha Animation Inc., remain unorganized. (Both of these studios come from mainland China). There are small TV animation studios (like Wild Canary and Robin Red Breast) doing sub-contracting work for the majors, and a few like Splash Entertainment (formerly Moonscoop, formerly Mike Young Productions) doing original content with larger partners.

The long and short of it is, the Los Angeles animation scene is active and vibrant; if there wasn’t a country to our north giving away fistfuls of Free Money, it would be even more vibrant. But even with the subsidized cartoon work force in Canada, Los Angeles is doing all right. As the list directly below will attest. …

Kindly note that there is big overlap with this post’s previous incarnation, but also a lot of new projects. As before, feel free to comment at the bottom; we will add or subtract shows as needed, for we are not all-seeing nor infallible. …

ANIMATION PRODUCTIONS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY
(Mainly guild work, but also some non-guild productions. Obviously the list will be amended as we go along, no?)

(Note that FR has recently been sold by Starz Media to a new holding company, that corporate topkick Dana Booten has resigned from the company but founder Phil Roman has returned, and that there are various projects in development.

However, the company is no longer doing “Ultimate Spiderman” or “The Simpsons”. Spidey moved to Marvel Animation under a different title, and the Yellow Family shifted to Fox Animation as of January 1st.)